REVIEW: McDonald’s McCafé Frappé Chocolate Chip

For these armpit sweat staining months, McDonald’s has introduced their blended McCafe Frappé Chocolate Chip, which is pretty much a McDonald’s Frappé Caramel combined with a McDonald’s Frappé Mocha and chocolate chips.

Oh, I didn’t break it down enough for you?

Well then, here you go: The Frappé Chocolate Chip is made up of ice, a caramel coffee frappé base, a mocha coffee frappé base, and chocolate chips that’s topped with whipped cream and caramel and chocolate drizzles.

Oh, you want it broken down even more, food nerd?

Well, swallow this long list of ingredients in no particular order: Ice, sugar, milk, high fructose corn syrup, natural (botanical source) and artificial flavors, mono- and diglycerides, guar gum, potassium citrate, disodium phosphate, carrageenan, carob bean gum, cocoa (processed with alkali), red 40, yellow 5, blue 1, nonfat milk, corn syrup, polysorbate 80, beta carotene, natural (dairy and vegetable source) and artificial flavor, mixed tocopherols, coffee extract, whipping propellant (nitrous oxide), semi-sweet chocolate, sweetened condensed milk, butter, salt, pectin, artificial flavor (vanillin, ethyl vanillin), caramel color (with sulfites), potassium sorbate (preservative), dextrose, water, glycerin, hydrogenated coconut oil, food starch-modified, cream, natural (plant source) and artificial flavor, gellan gum, potassium sorbate (preservative).

Happy now?

Although I’m as much of a fan of McDonald’s original Mocha and Caramel Frappés as I am of filling co-workers cubicles with balloons while they’re on vacation, I can’t say the same about the chocolate chip version.

Look, the Frappé Chocolate Chip is well-blended, sweet, and refreshing, if you find yourself in temperatures higher than 85 degrees Fahrenheit, but the chocolate chips do two things that make this Frappé less appealing to me. One, they don’t help give the blended beverage a strong chocolate flavor to go along with the caramel flavor. The sweet caramel definitely wears the pants in the relationship. Two, they give the Frappé a weird texture.

If you’re one of those people who likes to crush the fine granules of ice between their molars, even though admitting so to your dentist would get you a proper verbal lashing about teeth enamel, sadly, the blended chocolate chips dampens the ice crushing, making it less satisfying for those of us who like to weaken our tooth enamel and pay for it later with dentists sticking drills into our mouths and filling the holes they made with metal or resin. But most of you probably don’t have the strange oral fixation of crushing ice with your teeth, so this issue won’t bother you.

Oh, but I do have good news if you’re one of those people who hates the taste of coffee, but wants a coffee drink. If that describes you, this Frappé is for you. Much like coffee being hard to find in the long paragraph of ingredients above, the coffee flavor in this Frappé is hard to taste. The chocolate, caramel, sugar, and cream hides the coffee as if it’s a flavor burka.

The McDonald’s McCafé Frappé Chocolate Chip isn’t anything to get too excited about, unless you’ve just walked through 100 degree temperatures and are looking for anything to help cool you down.

(Nutrition Facts – Small Size/12 ounces – 530 calories, 220 calories from fat, 24 grams of fat, 15 grams of saturated fat, 1 gram of trans fat, 55 milligrams of cholesterol, 140 milligrams of sodium, 74 grams of carbohydrates, 66 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fiber, and 7 grams of protein.)

Other McDonald’s McCafé Frappé Chocolate Chip reviews:
Brand Eating

Item: McDonald’s McCafé Frappé Chocolate Chip
Purchased Price: $2.99
Size: Small/12 ounces
Purchased at: McDonald’s
Rating: 6 out of 10
Pros: If you love coffee drinks, but hate the flavor of coffee, this is for you. Awesome if you love drizzles. Cool. Refreshing. Well blended.
Cons: Caramel wears the pants in this relationship. Will be sweet to some. Chocolate chips get in the way for us ice chewers. Summer heat. Weakened tooth enamel.